Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., gestures while announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate seat vacated with the resignation of John Kerry at Ironworkers Local 7 in Boston on Jan. 31.Associated Press File Photo

BOSTON - U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch has an unusual voting record for a Massachusetts Democrat – one that could hurt him with progressive Democrats while bolstering his image among conservatives and independents in his run for U.S. Senate.

While Lynch votes with his party most of the time, he also broke with Democrats on some major issues.

He voted against Democratic President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms and opposes abortion.

Jerold Duquette, associate professor of political science at Central Connecticut State University and author of a blog on Massachusetts politics, says Lynch’s record allows him to appeal to “Reagan Democrats,” what Duquette calls the “culturally more conservative crowd.”

“He basically tows the party line on most important votes, though he did have some high-profile defections, none of which altered the course of legislation,” Duquette said. “He’s kind of an iconoclastic conservative Democrat.”

Lynch is hardly a rogue Democrat. A Congressional Quarterly database from 2011 found Lynch voted with his party 93 percent of the time, in cases when a majority of Democrats opposed a majority of Republicans.

Some of his breakaway votes, however, irk Democrats. “There are those in the Democratic Party who think his vote against the Affordable Care Act was improper,” said Boston political activist Woody Kaplan, who supports U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Malden, in the Senate race.

In 2010, Lynch sided with every House Republican and just 33 other Democrats in opposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At the time, Lynch referred to the landmark health insurance reform bill as “a bill that cost almost a trillion dollars but which in my opinion, offered little to reform the current skyrocketing costs of the fee-for-service system that is dominated by the insurance industry.”

Lynch said he supported an earlier version, but opposed the final bill because it did not repeal a law allowing insurance companies to act as monopolies; did not allow states to provide a public option (a state-run health insurance plan); and funded the law through a tax on high-cost health plans rather than high-income earners. Lynch opposes a national public option, but supports it at a state level.

Lynch defends his vote on the Senate campaign trail, recently handing out a Wall Street Journal story detailing unions’ concerns about the law to a gathering of business leaders. Lynch told the group that by exempting small companies, the law encourages small companies not to provide health insurance while incentivising large firms to pay a penalty rather than pay the higher cost of health insurance. Lynch has opposed efforts to repeal Obama’s reforms.

On abortion, Lynch calls himself pro-life, another area that could hurt him with Democratic voters.

William Geary, a member of Markey’s finance committee, said he thinks a major issue of this Senate campaign will be “whether women want to contemplate having someone who will support the right to choice, Roe v. Wade.”

Lynch has received mixed scores from pro-life and pro-choice groups. In Congress, he voted to ban partial birth abortion. As a state legislator, the Boston Globe reported that Lynch led an effort to ban abortions after 24 weeks and opposed creating a “buffer zone” keeping protesters away from abortion clinics.

As a member of Congress, Lynch voted against a cut in funding for Planned Parenthood. Lynch says he does not want to repeal Roe v. Wade and would not support a judicial nominee with that agenda.

“I think that the way you reduce abortions is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and you increase access to contraceptive counseling and birth control,” Lynch told The Republican and MassLive.com in an interview.

On defense, Lynch was one of 81 Democrats who joined almost every House Republican voting to authorize the 2002 Iraq war. Lynch said he was briefed by Republicans, Democrats and Israeli experts and was influenced by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s history of attacking his neighbors and the belief that he had weapons of mass destruction.

“Based on the information I had in front of me at the time, I thought it was the right vote,” Lynch said. “Of course, later on we discovered that the information was not correct.”

Asked whether the U.S. should use force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Lynch said, “I would be very cautious about making that step.” Lynch says the U.S. must respond to the Iranian threat as part of an international coalition, and any actions must be taken with international partners.

On fiscal issues, Lynch supported the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill and the 2009 federal stimulus bill. He says he opposed Obama’s temporary 2 percentage point payroll tax cut because it took money from Social Security. He opposed the 2008 bailout of the financial industry. He is a strong supporter of unions.

Lynch has a mixed record on free trade – supporting, for example, a Russia-U.S. trade agreement, and opposing agreements with Central America, Panama, Colombia and Chile. Lynch says he generally opposes agreements with countries that would result in the exploitation of low-skilled workers.

On Western Massachusetts issues, Lynch supports the development of broadband Internet networks in rural areas. “I see broadband much the same as I see power delivery or roads and bridges, as part of the infrastructure,” Lynch said. “It will help stimulate economic activity.”

Lynch worked with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to prevent cuts to Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee and Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield.

He has talked about addressing unemployment throughout the state by ending tax incentives and policies that encourage companies to send jobs overseas.

Lynch serves on the House Financial Services and Oversight and Government Reform committees.

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